Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait
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Focus News for, by and aboutON Charleston County CCSD School District, the state of South Carolina’s premier school district where Students are the Heart of Our Work. Volume 1 | Edition 2 | March 2018 Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait: It’s Time to Bring Equity to Charleston County Schools Charleston County for too long has accepted a school system made it illegal to educate black people. That tragic and painful as $51,000. Postlewait wants starting pay for Charleston where half of all students — mostly black and Hispanic legacy was built into the state’s education system and still is County teachers to be bumped up to at least $40,000. Better children and those living in poverty — fail to thrive, and it’s present today. And it manifests in the system in myriad ways. pay is essential to attracting top teachers in today’s teacher time to make the dramatic systemic changes required to turn shortage. But, she said, it will cost the district about $20 that around, Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait told First, there simply are not enough experienced teachers million to increase teacher salaries. – continued on page 4 members of the Historic Rotary Club of Charleston. working in schools with a high percentage of children of color and those from lower-income families. The district’s Postlewait began her Nov. 28 talk with some startling facts greatest challenges are found in those schools, and it needs about the Charleston County public schools. “We have to steer its top talent to them to meet those challenges. “We “We have schools in Charleston schools in Charleston County that rate among the top need to learn to spot teachers who take children who are nationally, and we have schools in Charleston County that below grade-level and move them more than a year in a year,” County that rate among the top are the worst performing schools in the state. That represents Postlewait said. That’s the only way children who have fallen nationally, and we have schools a system failure”, she said. “There is a time for plain behind academically can catch up and then get ahead. And speaking,” she said. And for her, that time is now. the district needs to offer incentives to great teachers who in Charleston County that are There are five CCSD schools where fewer than 8 percent of work in its most challenging schools. the worst performing schools in students read at grade-level, she said. “And in those schools, The district also must find and celebrate excellent principals the state. That represents a system there is a terrible over-representation of children of color and and other leaders. “Teachers will come to work for great poverty.” leaders,” she said. failure. There is a time for plain Everyone employed by the district is working hard, including And finally, the district must develop a pipeline to create a speaking.” teachers, principals and people who work in the district office. continuous flow of talented people into the system. One of “But we’re not getting the job done for half of our children. Gerrita Postlewait That’s a classic definition of a systems failure,” she said. the main drawbacks to this is the rate at which the district pays teachers, she said. Now, a starting CCSD teacher makes Superintendent The roots of the inequity can be traced back at least to the about $36,000. But other school districts that recruit teachers 1800s, when the state of South Carolina passed a law that in the same places as CCSD pay beginning teachers as much GRADUATES FIGHTING TO PRESERVE School Board THE HISTORY OF THE LAING SCHOOL Approves CCSD’s Strategic Plan Question: What is a strategic plan and why should it matter to me? Answer: The South Carolina Department of Education requires all school districts to submit a strategic plan every five years, and to update that plan every year. The Charleston County School Board in December gave final approval to CCSD’s plan, which included gathering input from teachers and other district staff, parents and community leaders. The plan details the district’s goals for students and the organization, and provides a framework for how it will achieve them. While some elements of the plan are very detailed and might seem like “inside baseball,” others will directly impact what goes on in the district’s classrooms. Essentially, the plan provides the big “If we don’t tell our story, someone will tell his story.” picture for the kind of learning experiences the district Martha Pearl Vanderhorst Ascue, a member of the association and a 1963 graduate of Laing. wants to provide and the steps it will take to ensure it can provide them. Drive down U.S. Highway 17 past the intersection of Six Mile Road and you will see the old Laing School building. It looks Q: According to the plan, what are the district’s goals for like any other old, empty school building, and soon it will be demolished to make way for a new Home Depot in the rapidly the next five years? gentrifying section of Mount Pleasant. A: The district will: But members of the Laing School Association want everybody to know it’s not an ordinary school building. And they want • Maximize academic achievement and ensure every to make sure that the story, memories and significance of the Laing School, which originally opened to serve freed black student is career, college and citizenship ready. students in a charred church in the town’s Old Village just months after the end of the Civil War, doesn’t get swept away with • Provide learning opportunities that allow every student rubble. It’s their story and they want it told in their voices. “If we don’t tell our story, someone will tell his story,” said Martha to develop and demonstrate talents, interests and Pearl Vanderhorst Ascue, a member of the association and a 1963 graduate of Laing. modern workplace skills. The Six-Mile site, which was one of several Laing School sites, opened in 1953 to serve black seventh- through 12th-grade • Ensure a safe, supportive and inclusive environment students, said Dorothy Elizabeth Fludd. Fludd is a 1955 graduate, one of the first black librarians hired at the College of for every student and adult in the system. Charleston and the association’s historian. Seventeen high school classes graduated from Laing. In the early 1970s, the building • Implement a pipeline that recruits, supports, retains briefly served as an eighth-grade campus for the newly opened Wando High School, and then reopened in 1974 as Laing and rewards talented teachers, principals and staff for Middle School. – continued on page 3 every school. • Align resources to address student needs. • Engage in continuous progress processes to create system effectiveness in meeting student needs. Expanded Technical and Career Education • Communicate student progress. Seek feedback and cultivate family and community partnerships to ensure Headed to North Charleston success for every student. information technology, pre-engineering, and arts and audio • Address local priorities to provide systemwide visual technologies. equity. – continued on page 4 THE NEW NORTH The new Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) model CHARLESTON CENTER represents a departure from the traditional technical school model, where students take both their academic and trade FOR ADVANCED STUDIES courses at one school. When the new center opens, all students will have a home high school. But those who are INSIDE THIS OPENS IN 2020. interested will take courses or participate in training programs for part of the day at the CAS. The new model will benefit students ISSUE because the larger training center, which The new model will benefit students because the larger serves more schools, can offer training center, which serves more schools, can offer more more technical programs. technical programs. The model also will benefit existing high A New Diversity Plan for Academic schools by bringing in more students so they also can expand Magnet High School....................................2 offerings for students who attend them. When the new North Charleston Center for Advanced Students get Hooked on Guitars Studies opens in 2020, students from all North Charleston Charleston County voters approved funding for the North from the First Chord....................................2 High Schools will have the opportunity to learn skills that Charleston CAS, and another one in West Ashley, in the will give them an edge when it comes to landing jobs in the 2014 penny sales tax referendum. A center is already open Engaging Parents in Title I Schools ..............2 Lowcountry’s growing economy. on the Wando High School campus in Mount Pleasant. CCSD Working Toward Accreditation The school board in November voted in favor of building The decision on the North Charleston center site came after through AdvancEd.......................................3 the $43.7 million career training facility across East months of discussion on the best location. The board on Nov. Montague Avenue from North Charleston High School, on 2 voted 7-2 in favor of the North Charleston High site. Benedict’s Marching Tigers Band the site of Attaway-Heinsohn Stadium. When it’s done, District officials initially recommended that site because it of Distinction Impresses and students from all North Charleston High Schools — was centrally located and there was space available to build including Stall, North Charleston and Military Magnet — the facility. Board members Rev. Chris Collins and Michael Inspires at West Ashley High........................4 can take classes in the fields of health science technologies, Miller were opposed. – continued on page 4 Focus ON CCSD p2 New Diversity Plan for Academic Magnet High School Academic Magnet High School every year is 12.99 will be invited to attend a series of spring and summer ranked one of the best public schools in workshops designed to strengthen academic skills and plan for America, but when it comes to the STUDENT ETHNICITY successful enrollment at the school.